Chapter 9

Well, being a new father was great, but Jason still had that present for his wife that he had made the trip into Buzzard Flats to get a few days before. Luckily, it had arrived before the baby did. He went to the hiding place he had saved for the surprise gift and brought it out to show to Janet. She was thrilled when he fastened the necklace around her neck and kissed her passionately before kissing their son.

She seemed to glow with the joy she felt from receiving the gift. Janet believed with all of her being that Jason loved her beyond all else. She could have not been happier, even though she was exhausted from the birth of their son.

Now that Jason had been able to greet his son and thank his wife, Juanita chased him out of the bedroom so that Janet could get some rest. Jason went back to relay the news of his son to the men who had tried to keep him calm. Congratulations rolled around the ranch as Jason handed out the celebratory cigars. Every man lit up, even those who normally didn't smoke. Jason was so excited and elated that he was practically doing hand springs, but he finally simmered down enough that he was able to eat a light lunch that Juanita fixed for him and the men.

After lunch, Jason spent some time with Janet and the baby, but it was mostly spent in quiet companionship as the baby slept and Janet drifted in and out of sleep, herself. By the time for supper, Janet was ready for a little food and Jason was ravenously hungry. Juanita fixed some broth for Janet, but Jason insisted that he feed it to her. It was only after she drifted off to sleep again that he went to the table for his own supper. By then, the other men had eaten and left, but Juanita had saved plenty of food for Jason. Jason ate, and then he realized just how tired he was, so he went to another bedroom and fell asleep the moment he stripped and lay down.

The next morning, Jason was awakened by the voice of his new son. If that boy ever grew to match his voice, he was sure to be a veritable giant. Jason dressed and went in to see Janet and the baby. The baby was nursing when Jason arrived; probably, that was what he was crying about in the first place. The morning kiss was exchanged and Jason admired the vigor with which he was draining Janet's breast. "That kid ought to grow fast at the rate he is sucking," Jason announced.

He and Janet grinned, and Jason went out to find his breakfast. Juanita had it ready very shortly after he showed up in the kitchen, so Jason was primed for the day and ready to go.

It was still pretty early in the morning when the lookout on the roof shouted that a cloud of dust was seen approaching. Everybody rushed to his action post, and they waited for the trouble to arrive. It was not long in showing up, but the force was a lot smaller than it had been on the previous two occasions. There were 15 cowboys and Henry Richards in the gang, and they attacked the fence just as they had done on previous occasions. Jason marveled at how Richards couldn't seem to come up with new tactics.

This time, Jason's men had rifles as well as shotguns with them on the roof, and they began shooting the rifles at the man who tried to cut the fence. They never knew how many times he was hit, but a total of 10 rifles were firing at him, so he was bound to catch at least one bullet before he ever reached the fence.

The other riders had bunched up, so Bolivar heaved a hand grenade into their midst. With his usual uncanny accuracy, he placed that hand grenade where it would do the most good when it went off. Six of the cowboys were injured by the concussion and the flying rocks used as shrapnel, so the attack was broken before it really started.

This was when Jason's men started something that they should have done to begin with: they started shooting specifically at Henry Richards with their rifles. He was lucky in that he moved around enough that the men could not get a steady bead on him, so he only received a few minor wounds, none of which could have made him more than a little sore.

This effective defensive fire was enough to drive off the attackers, and Jason's men relaxed at their posts. They did not stand down from the roof firing platform immediately, just in case Richards tried to attack again. He didn't, so they were able to return to normal duties about half an hour after the attackers rode off with their dead and wounded.

Jason was still perplexed by Henry Richards motive in trying to drive him away, and he wondered if he would ever know what it was. The only thing that Jason could figure was that Richards hoped to get Jason's ranch by claiming it to be abandoned property. OK, that would explain why Richards wanted Jason gone, but it did not explain why he was so anxious to claim this particular land. If he just wanted more range, he could have bought other adjacent ranches, so there had to be more to it than that. Jason really fumed because he feared that he might never find out the real reason behind the attacks.

Jason did have Arturo send a couple of men to scout the Circle R to see if there was something else that they might attack. They had destroyed the main ranch house, but, perhaps, there was something else that they could strike at to put more pressure on Richards.

The scouts reported back that no effort had been made to rebuild the main house. It looked to them like Richards had moved into the bunkhouse and probably sent his family to live in town until the conflict was settled. That meant that the only buildings left standing were the bunkhouse, a couple of barns, and some insignificant outbuildings. Jason decided to hit the bunkhouse and barns that night. His timing was based on the idea that Richards' operation would still be in an uproar because of the recent failed attack.

That night, Jason moved his usual attack force to the Circle R. This time, they were seen before they could begin their attack, but there was not enough effective resistance to drive Jason's men away. They set up the trebuchet and fired a bomb into the bunkhouse near one end. By this time, they did not need ranging shots to hit what they could see, so the first bomb did a significant amount of damage as it broke through the roof just before it went off.

The second bomb hit the bunkhouse at the other end with the same result. By this time, nearly naked men were pouring out of the damaged building like a nest of disturbed ants. A few of them had rifles, but most were armed with their Navy Colts. It made little difference because of the difficulty of hitting a target at night, even with a muzzle flash to shoot at. Jason's men just ignored the shots being fired at them until there was more danger associated with the shooting.

Meanwhile, a third bomb had landed on the middle section of the bunkhouse, and it did the same kind of damage as the other two bombs had done. The ultimate result was a linear pile of broken wood that was burning merrily and fully illuminating the men of the other side of the fight.

Jason now switched his trebuchet aim to the larger of the two barns. Only two bombs were enough to set this building ablaze, and the men were suddenly preoccupied with trying to rescue their horses from the burning barn. Only one bomb was needed to set the other barn on fire. It was obviously used exclusively for storing hay, and it burned with a brilliance that the attackers could not help admiring.

In a fit of true malice, Jason now shifted his aim to the rather large privy. Of course, this target only merited one bomb, but every one of the attackers thoroughly enjoyed watching it explode. The only thing left were small buildings like the smokehouse, and they were too far away to make sure targets, so Jason had his men pack up for the trip home. It was a merry trip, full of laughter and joking, especially about the big bang put on the privy.

They arrived home and packed everything away. Jason went to tell Janet what had happened. She had insisted before he left that he come in and wake her whenever he got home so that she could hear the news while it was fresh. Janet was asleep, but woke up immediately when she saw that it was Jason there to tell her of the adventure. She, too, laughed uproariously over the destruction of the outhouse, but she was sorry to hear that some animals might have been injured when the barn was bombed.

The next time he saw Arturo, Jason suggested they concentrate on killing Henry Richards if and when he ever showed up again. It looked to Jason like the man was incapable of taking a hint! As far as Jason could tell, the only way for this stupid war to end was for one of them to kill the other, and Jason did not want to be the dead one of the pair. Arturo thought that was a good idea and promised to pass the word to the men.